


Counterparts

by izayoi_no_mikoto



Category: Monochrome Factor
Genre: M/M, Nonnies Made Me Do It, One-Sided Relationship, Reincarnation, Yearning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-06-21
Packaged: 2019-01-05 06:56:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12185136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izayoi_no_mikoto/pseuds/izayoi_no_mikoto
Summary: Shirogane watches Akira sleep.





	Counterparts

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place somewhere in the vicinity of Volume 5.

Akira doesn't sleep like the dead, but it's a close thing.

He's snoring, drooling a bit, insensate to the world.  It's not that he'll sleep through absolutely anything-–Shirogane learned _that_ lesson the night he snuck out to interrogate Kou–-but he certainly will make the effort.

Shirogane mostly just sits and watches him sleep.  It isn't often that he has this-–a moment of quiet, of calm.  A moment he can just gaze at Akira and see if he can find Ryuuko somewhere in that face.

Akira may be Ryuuko's reincarnation, but he isn't Ryuuko.  Part of Shirogane–-to be honest, _most_ of Shirogane–-is made irritated and impatient by this, but he can't in good faith blame Akira, and so he hides it behind smiles and obfuscation.  Akira doesn't have Ryuuko's knowledge, Ryuuko's memory, and Shirogane can't tell him.  It's too dangerous, too much, too soon.  So instead he drops crumbs, just enough to temporarily satisfy Akira's curiosity.  He explains only the bare minimum–-light and shadow, shin and rei, the royal line.  That Shirogane and Ryuuko, and therefore Shirogane and Akira, are counterparts.

_Counterparts_.  An easy word that explains too little.  There are so many things he has left unsaid, and one day, he will pay for his secrecy.

Shirogane rests his chin on his hands and stares at Akira, brooding.  Right now, Akira looks like nothing but a normal teenage boy–-sprawled large across his bed, mouth hanging open, his brown hair a disaster.  Times like this, it's hard to see Ryuuko in him at all.

But all the same, Shirogane knows.  Even when Akira just looks like Akira, he _knows_.

_Ryuuko_ , Shirogane wants to say.  But when he opens his mouth, his voice whispers, "Akira-kun."

Akira shifts slightly in bed, making a snuffling sound, and then he resumes snoring.  Shirogane closes his eyes.

Akira is not Ryuuko.  Akira is Shirogane's counterpart, nothing more and nothing less.

But sometimes, Shirogane thinks it should be something more.

**Author's Note:**

> (Inspired by the prompt: 100 words of soulmates)


End file.
